Cosmetic Safety Database

I'm not sure how I first became aware of this website but it's been influential in products I choose to use at our house and I wanted to share this valuable information with all of you.

The Cosmetic Safety Database was started in 2004 and is a place where information has been gathered on literally thousands and thousands of personal care products (deoderant, shampoo, toothpaste, make-up, baby wipes, etc). Each product has been given a "hazard score" from 0-10 and has it's own summary page so that you can look at each ingredient and the known hazards including neurotoxicity, imunotoxicity (allergies), carcinogens (cancer causing), reproductive effects, etc. It is a fascinating website and you could spend hours and hours browsing. The website also has a FAQ page if you want more info on how they score products or if you're curious about the Environmental Working Group and what they do.

I think it's worthwhile to know what ingredients I am exposing myself to on a daily basis. I don't want to sound like a nut case, but I have wondered if we "give" ourselves a lot of our illnesses/diseases by constant exposure to harmful chemicals in tiny doses over the course of our lifetime?

The biggest changes I've made have been in the products that I use on my children. I was using a very popular brand of baby wash/shampoo and lotion. When I checked it's score on the CSD it was a 6 out of 10!!! So approximately every other day for three years I bathed my daughter in a product containing some nasty stuff. I switched brands immediately and my new favorite for the time being is California Baby. It's definitely more expensive but it's a price I'm willing to pay (literally) to protect my children from unnecessary exposure to chemicals they could absorb through their skin which are cancer causing and could damage other systems of their bodies. (California Baby is also available at diapers.com and in Target stores.)

One other helpful site is GoodGuide. This one has safety ratings for household products as well as personal care products. I haven't used this site as much yet so I don't have as much to share about it, but it seems really helpful if you're trying to be conscientious about using healthy products in your home. Also, if you do a search for a product (for example, toilet bowl cleaner) you can then filter your search further by fragrance free, environmentally friendly and animal friendly.

I hope this is helpful to you. I share this with you out of genuine concern about the products we all use on a daily basis and the potential harm we could be doing to ourselves. Thanks for reading! And leave a comment if you have any helpful suggestions about healthy products you use!